9×18mm Makarov
9×18 Макаров
Introduced 1951B. V. SeminCIP standard
Also known as 9mm PM — the same cartridge under different names, all of which find this page.
Dimensions and pressure
Generated from the schema, like every specification table on this site, so a figure recorded on this entry cannot be missing from the table.
Identity
- Designed by
- B. V. Semin
- Introduced
- 1951
- Production
- not recorded
- Standards body
- C.I.P.
- Case type
- Rimless
- Case shape
- Tapered
Dimensions
- Bullet diameter
- 9.27 mm0.3650 insource
C.I.P. G1, maximum bullet diameter.
- Bore diameter
- not recorded
- Case length
- 18.1 mm0.7126 insource
C.I.P. L3, maximum case length.
- Overall length
- 25 mm0.9843 insource
C.I.P. L6, maximum cartridge overall length.
- Rim diameter
- 9.95 mm0.3917 insource
C.I.P. R1.
- Neck diameter
- 9.91 mm0.3902 insource
C.I.P. H2.
- Base diameter
- 9.95 mm0.3917 insource
C.I.P. P1.
Pressure
- Maximum pressure
- 160 MPa23,206 psisource
C.I.P. Pmax 1600 bar; 1 bar = 0.1 MPa exactly.
- Pressure standard
- C.I.P.
SAAMI and C.I.P. measure pressure differently and their figures are not interchangeable, which is why the body is always named beside the figure.
Loads
Velocity is recorded per barrel length as published. A gun page interpolates between these points and never projects beyond them.
95 gr full metal jacket
- Bullet mass
- 6.156 g95.00 grsource
Published as 95 gr; 1 gr = 0.06479891 g exactly.
- Cartridge mass
- not recorded
- Bullet type
- FMJ
- G1 BC
- not recorded
- G7 BC
- not recorded
| Barrel | Velocity |
|---|---|
| 97 mm3.819 in | 319 m/s1,047 fps |
Chambered in
Computed from every entry that lists this cartridge. Nothing here is hand-maintained.
- Stechkin automatic pistol
Vyatskiye Polyany Machine-Building Plant
Gallery
Image credit
- Title
- File:9×18mm Makarov-horizontal.jpg
- Author
- Grasyl(attribution required)
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 4.0
- Source
- https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:9×18mm_Makarov-horizontal.jpg
Detail
Deliberately the most powerful cartridge that a simple blowback pistol can fire comfortably, and no more. Semin’s 1946 design sits between the .380 ACP and the 9×19mm on every axis, and its bullet is 0.27 mm fatter than either — a decision usually explained as making captured Soviet ammunition useless in NATO pistols, and captured NATO ammunition dangerous in Soviet ones.
The 160 MPa ceiling is the whole point. Below it, a pistol needs no locking mechanism at all: a fixed barrel, a slide, and a spring. That is why the Makarov pistol has so few parts, and why it was made in such enormous numbers across the Warsaw Pact.
Note the test barrel below — 97 mm, which is the pistol’s actual barrel rather than a laboratory length. It is the rare case where the published figure and the figure a shooter experiences are the same number.
References
- C.I.P. TDCC datasheet — 9 mm Makarov · 2000-06-07 · read 2026-08-31
- 9×18mm Makarov · 1364073174 · read 2026-08-31
Last verified 2026-08-31 · review status: agent-populated